The Bethesda Blog has a news roundup for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the upcoming RPG sequel. They point to a RipTen preview where the author describes a vampire encounter, and interviews by the tireless Pete Hines, who discussed the game with Computec, Destructoid, FBC, and GameSpot during Gamescom. They also note the news on Joystiq that the first two DLC packs for Skyrim will be timed Xbox 360 exclusives: "Earlier this morning, Microsoft announced that the first two pieces of game add-on content for Skyrim will be releasing exclusively on Xbox 360 — 30 days before they’re available anywhere else. When we have more details on the content, we’ll let everyone know. "

Would people stop spending money on DLC please? This is becoming extremely annoying to see companies hack up their game to try and sell bits and pieces to you after launch.

This is one way to look at it, and hard to argue against in the cases of pre-release-announced (and 0 day) DLC...

But DLC is just another word for 'expansion', except that it's smaller... Irregardless of that, when you played an awesome game 5, 10, 20 years ago, and just wanted MORE MORE MORE, wouldn't it have been cool if another official chapter/map/etc was made available for 'just a few bucks'...

In short, like anything, a blanket statement/judgement about DLC is far from adequate... Some companies do it well (Borderlands, for me), and others don't (Dragon age II and others' 0 day DLC)... Award one, and punish the other.

Also consider that 'DLC' is why we can even have free games (like one I hope to release 'soon' on iOS), where the player can choose to never pay, or buy some in-app goodies (aka microtransactions/DLC/etc). And I know you like free; But then, you can complain that you can't be competitive without paying, and I find that hard to have a problem with when it's free : )

Would people stop spending money on DLC please? This is becoming extremely annoying to see companies hack up their game to try and sell bits and pieces to you after launch

That's usually not how it works, and it's not how it worked with Oblivion. Hell, most of Oblivion's DLC would have ruined the game if it was included, as it was all very powerful.

Sigh.

Would people stop thinking that games have unlimited budgets and start understanding that DLC comes from an entirely separate budget, one that in the past would have given us add-on packs. But I guess Tumbler feels that Ultimate Doom should have been included with Doom and Scourge of Armageddon should have been included with Quake.

While I agree with your assessment of DLC, I take issue with your comparison of DLC to add-on packs/expansions. Pound for pound, expansions and add-ons were a MUCH better value for what they were priced at. They were typically 20 bucks, but offered orders magnitude more content than what DLC does today for 6-10 bucks. Bethesda generally does it right, but many many companies offer paltry tidbits for 7 bucks.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

SirKnight wrote on Aug 26, 2011, 11:53:Modern day DLC is a horrible rip off and is just nickle-and-diming.

Some is, some isn't. Bethesda is usually pretty good with their DLC these days though, they're one of the companies who consistently gives great value for the money. We all LOL about Horse Armor every now and then but they were literally inventing a new concept and it was years ago.

SirKnight wrote on Aug 26, 2011, 11:53:Modern day DLC is a horrible rip off and is just nickle-and-diming.

Some of it is, sure. A smart buyer will recognize those and avoid them.

But how are The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, Lair of the Shadowbroker, and Old World Blues, to name but a few, ripoffs? They're awesome, meaty DLC that give a good story, extend the game world with new areas, new items, etc.

Yes, horse armor was a piece of shit. Let's move on, shall we people? That was like five years ago. DLC has definitely gotten better in the meantime.

Would people stop spending money on DLC please? This is becoming extremely annoying to see companies hack up their game to try and sell bits and pieces to you after launch

That's usually not how it works, and it's not how it worked with Oblivion. Hell, most of Oblivion's DLC would have ruined the game if it was included, as it was all very powerful.

Sigh.

Would people stop thinking that games have unlimited budgets and start understanding that DLC comes from an entirely separate budget, one that in the past would have given us add-on packs. But I guess Tumbler feels that Ultimate Doom should have been included with Doom and Scourge of Armageddon should have been included with Quake.

The Xbox 360, where the graphics will be worse, the framerate will be lower, the ingame options will be less configurable, and the 3rd party addon support will be greatly reduced.. Apparently Bethesda prefers people to experience their game on an inferior system. Strange